Brian P. Copenhaver (born December 21, 1942) is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and History at The University of California, Los Angeles. He teaches and writes about philosophy, religion and science in late medieval and early modern Europe.
Copenhaver was educated at Loyola College (Baltimore), Creighton University and The University of Kansas, before doing post-doctoral studies at the Warburg Institute. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, past President of the Journal of the History of Philosophy and a member of the Council of the Instituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento in Italy. He serves or has served on the boards of Renaissance Quarterly, Annals of Science, the Journal of the History of Ideas, Early Science and Medicine, the International Archives of the History of Ideas, and the I Tatti Renaissance Library. He was the charter co-editor of Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft, and was the Editor of the History of Philosophy Quarterly, His research has been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, the Getty Trust, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, the Medieval Academy of America and by a Fulbright Scholarship.
An odd feature of the Bible is that it is full of stories featuring forms of magic and possession - from Joseph battling with Pharaoh's wizards to the supernatural actions of Jesus and his disciples. As, over the following centuries, the Christian church attempted to stamp out 'deviant' practices, there was a persistent interest in magic that drew strength from this Biblical validation. A strange blend of mumbo-jumbo, fraud and deeply serious study, magic was central to the European Renaissance, fascinating many of its greatest figures.
Brian Copenhaver's wonderful anthology will be welcomed by everyone from those with the most casual interest in the magical tradition to anyone drawn to the Renaissance and the tangled, arcane roots of the scientific tradition.
Video Title: HoP 367 - Brian Copenhaver on Renaissance Magic. Source: history of philosophy without any gaps. Date Published: February 7, 2021. Description:
Our guest Brian Copenhaver joins us to explain how Ficino and other Renaissance philosophers thought about magic.
